getting out of my comfort zone

Last night, I was pushed out of my comfort zone... doing WODs with just bars and wooden bumpers.

Last September, we started Crossfit. Of course, being a beginner with no experience in lifting, I started with just the 35lb bar with wood bumper plates for any WOD that has anything arm-related especially jerks and push press.  Then October, we got pregnant. Well, I got pregnant, and had to scale back WODs and stayed at that 35lb bar. While it's true that I've been at Crossfit for over a year, 9 months of that I was pregnant and off for 5 weeks after the baby, I have modified and scaled down most, if not all of the WODs. I couldn't really work on much but just maintaining my strength status quo. In my head, I'm still a Crossfit Newbie(ish). So really, I'm back to where I started last year, back at those 35 lb bars. Or so I thought.

Last night's WOD was AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 20 minutes of 1 deadlift, hang clean, then front squat, and split jerk. I thought, well, I've been doing 35 lb bars while I was pregnant, sure, I'll go up to 45 tonight. Until Jim saw my bar and told me to go up some more. 

whaaaat??

So I took a 35 lb bar, and added 10-lbs on each side. I practiced one round... it was heavy. Ugh. I'm gonna die. I conveniently left two 5-lb weights on the side thinking I can always scale back in the middle of it if it got heavy. My goal is not to die or snap my arms in two and get at least 10 rounds. That's like what? 1 round per 2 minutes? Well guess what? I survived the 20 minutes... and I got 40 rounds at 55lbs! (I'm trying not to compare this with my husband's RX capabilities, but maybe I'll get there someday.)

Have I been coddling myself because I was pregnant? I can't use that "I'm pregnant" or "I just had a baby" excuse anymore. Now this is the start of me getting stronger, lifting more, and running faster (or at least not die after 1/4 of a mile.)

My coworker Janet (whom I introduced to Crossfit! YAY!) has once told me that it's surprising what your body can do, and that it can do so much more than what you think it can. I can totally see that now.